New Media and the Rise of the Popular Woman Writer, 1832–1860

Explores the link between revolutionary change in the Victorian world of print and women’s entry into the field of mass-market publishing

This book highlights the integral relationship between the rise of the popular woman writer and the expansion and diversification of newspaper, book and periodical print media during a period of revolutionary change, 1832–1860. It includes discussion of canonical women writers such as Felicia Hemans, Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot, as well as lesser-known figures such as Eliza Cook and Frances Brown. It also examines the ways women readers actively responded to a robust popular print culture by creating scrapbooks and engaging in forms of celebrity worship. Easley analyses the ways Victorian women’s participation in popular print culture anticipates our own engagement with new media in the twenty-first century.